Hello to all,
I find myself for the first time to try to make a rigging to a robot... i'm still moddeling the model but i would like to begin studing some tutorials... do you know some material that is a good point to start with?

http://www.zocdesign.com/treddi/robot.jpg

I suppose is not much difficult compare to the skinning and rigging of organic characters.
i think It's all based on rigid bind....

Thanks so much in advance!

jdj

10 October 2005, 02:14 PM

I suppose is not much difficult compare to the skinning and rigging of organic characters.
i think It's all based on rigid bind....

Hi,

Basicly for these kind of "rigs" you do not need to bind the parts at all in the way you do for point based geometry that needs to deform. Since all the points of for instance a piston should follow a single transform and not blend between several transforms (i.e. bend or deform in any way), you only need to parent your diffrent parts to your rig.

And honestly you do not even need a rig per se - if you parent the parts together you have all that you basicly need. However it can be easier to have an explicit joint based rig to play around with. Joints for instance gives you the possibility to zero out rotations (i.e. make any position to the initial rotation 0,0,0), set/assume initial positions etc. I would do that if I were you.

However you do, you do not bind the parts to the rig, you parent them.

Cheers!
/ Daniel
P.S. Nice robot by the way :thumbsup: D.S.

zoc

10 October 2005, 04:10 PM

Thanks so much for the suggestion...
I'll try some solutions and i'll find the one I prefer...
I've got anoher problem. I want to put some tube around the robots: an easy example:

http://www.zocdesign.com/treddi/cavo.jpg

But i don't know how to create automatic dynamics for simulate the movement. If i move one point, i want the tube follow the object.

thanks so much!

Nem

10 October 2005, 04:17 PM

im not sure if this is possible, but you might be able to set up clusters on groups of CVs, then simulate dynamics on the clusters instead of the actual tube?

Thanks so much for the suggestion...
I've got anoher problem. I want to put some tube around the robots: an easy example:
...
But i don't know how to create automatic dynamics for simulate the movement. If i move one point, i want the tube follow the object.

This is an often discussed issue here. Do a search for "cable" or "chain" for example and see what you get. I do not remember all the ways, but the problem has been solved before and you can find it in the archived posts.

Myself I have made a plugin that does an approximation of this, but there are several ways to get to Rome.

One thing that just struck my mind is that you could perhaps make a joint chain (one joint / cv of curve) and attach an IK solver. Parent the handle to the other object and you might have something? Just a thought - I have never done it.

Otherwise rigid bodies could be another solution, but in the end I think that you do not need an physically "accurate" solution, but just something that looks good.

Another way would be to create a 4 point NURBS curve. Cluster the first two points to the first object and the other two to the second.

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